Runner lost in woods for 30 days says experience took years off his life
A long-distance runner was lost for 30 days in the wilderness of Washington state before his rescue from the brink of death.
What was supposed to be a day-long excursion for Robert Schock, 39, became a month-long fight for his life with no food, shelter, clothing or cell phone service.
“[The ordeal] has taken its toll on me,” Schock told People, “and I’ve aged several years because of it.”
“Hopefully, I get those years back.”
The musician from Blaine, Washington had planned on a 20-mile trail run when he arrived at North Cascades National Park with his dog, Freddy, on July 31.
“I am an ultra runner,” Schock said in an exclusive interview. “I’m not a hiker. I don’t put on backpacks and go out for multiple-day trips. I don’t know how to fish. I want to finish a course as fast as I can and come back home. So I had no shirt. I had a pair of shorts, I had Freddy and a dog pan. These were the only items in my small backpack.”
Schock wasn’t prepared for his curiosity to lead him so far astray.
He had set out to see them for the Chilliwack River Trail by way of the Copper Ridge Trail, traversing over the river by cable car. However, his outdated map did not account for the wildfires in 2021 and 2022 which took out parts of the trail
“When I got out there, the trail was no longer there,” Schock said. “I was curious to know what happened to this trail and my curiosity kind of kept me going.”
This was the point at which he’d lost his way.
His cell phone died on the second day. On the third day, sent his dog to find their home.
Schock began to lose track of time. “I wasn’t doing well.”
He found a nesting grounds formerly housed by bears. He subsisted on what he could find.
“I ate that thing all day long, and it just tasted like a normal mushroom you would have on a pizza or something,” he says. “It was the only thing I had to eat the entire time other than berries, they were pretty nasty.”
Schock confessed that his cries for help grew less frequent as the days passed — as he began to give up hope.
Meanwhile, on Aug. 4, the Whatcom Humane Society in Washington state called Schock’s mother, Jan Thompson, in North Carolina, reporting that they’d found Freddy but could not reach Schock. Thompson realized then she had also not heard from her son after he missed her previous call on July 31.
From across the country, she had no idea her son had planned to go on a run. On Aug. 5, she called the Whatcom police department, who soon informed her his car had already been found.
Thompson refused to officers who suggested her son had gone into the woods on purpose. knew that wasn’t the case,” she said. “Honestly, I never felt he had perished in the park despite the odds.”
By day 30, he had collapsed by the bank of the Chilliwack River with severe dysentery and “really felt like I was close to death,” he told People.
“I was sitting there naked and knew I wasn’t going to make it through the night,” he said. “So I was like, ‘I’m going to scream one last time.’ I said, ‘Help!’ ”
This time, his cries were heard: Members of the Pacific Northwest Trail Association were returning to their camp after performing maintenance work on a trail when Schock yelled for the last time.
He was soon airlifted to a hospital where he spent another month convalescing, during which time his mother and stepfather came to be by his side.
“I’ve learned details of his story in bits and pieces,” Thompson said. “Part of me doesn’t want to know because I can’t bear to think of how he suffered.”
Schock’s recovery continues now in Ohio where he grew up, at the home of his father and stepmother.
He told People that he plans to return to the Pacific Northwest to continue his musical aspirations, and running — though nowhere near North Cascades, he admitted.
Of the first responders and rescuers who found his almost lifeless body, Schock said, “It is an understatement to say how truly thankful I am for those people to be there that day because it came pretty close to the finish line.”
